Boats are special critters, that is why there are special "marine" stores that seem to charge 3 x's more for their products than the domestic or household versions of these items. Sometimes, we can find the required part or doohickey at a hardware store or building supply store that can do the job, but not always.

Our head sink drain died/rotted out, whatever term you choose to use. These things do not last forever in a salt environment, and on a 30+ year old boat, things can't last forever. When the sink drains went in the galley, we found the replacements quite easily, and inexpensively, at a building supply place in St. Lucia. We hoped for the same success with this little project. The only glitch is that household vanity sink drains have an extra hole for the overflow, something marine sinks don't generally have. We looked at every possible source in Grenada and could not find one without the hole in it. Rather than order and pay for an $80.00 USD marine unit, Ken gooped and taped and MacGyvered a $5.00 USD hardware store unit. Unfortunately, the initial attempt leaked, but a generous dose of "Flexset", a flexible two part epoxy, in the right places solved that problem. When a ring broke on the galley sink that caused another leak, liberal use of the same epoxy fixed it. I have been a fan of this stuff for a while (very good for dinghy leaks and other fun stuff), but Ken has now become a convert as well. After the vanity sink was fixed, I had the bright idea of just using a cheap through-hull fitting, well caulked and possibly faired down to the sink level so as to not have too big of a lip. That will be the next version of this, and Ken is contemplating doing that in the galley to have a more robust connection there, as things get beat up with the removal of items from that locker.

Now marine stuff is generally more expensive, but even at the price, that does not mean that they are necessarily well made. When we bought our new head two years ago (at least I think it is two years old now, maybe just one) the blasted thing leaked salt flush water, not nasty stuff, from the get-go when it was in the "dry" mode. A new rebuild kit and work on it did not change that leak. We now leave it in "wet" mode most of the time, and are grateful for the anti-syphon loop. I know non-boaters are now wondering just what I am talking about, just know our boat won't sink, and the head doesn't leak too much anymore. Frustrating, anyway, to have to settle, but removing the head to replace it is not something we care to do, especially since we hear this is not an uncommon occurrence.

We put a new hand pump in the head for fresh water. We are using the foot pump in the head for salt water instead, and there isn't room for a second foot pump in that area. Initially this created confusion and accidental tooth brushing with salt water (sheer habit of using the foot pump for fresh water for the past 10 years). Just as we were getting used to the fresh water hand pump, IT developed a leak. It is not like we are beating this thing up, just to wet toothbrushes and to rinse the salt water off our hands after washing our hands.

We do have one success story, though. We have a manifold between the fresh water tanks so we can choose what tank to get water from. Our old one (replaced while still in Toronto) bit the dust, and we easily found the parts at a hardware store and replaced it, including valves at the tank for an extra redundancy in the "shut-off" department.

The only real up side is that we don't have to pay someone mega-bucks to do the plumbing for us. It is something we are quite capable of doing for ourselves. We already did it the first time back in Toronto, so we know what we are dealing with when it comes time to repair and replace it now. Besides, I really don't fancy a stranger's plumber butt.